A virtual assistant is a software agent used to perform tasks. A virtual assistant may accept an instruction from a user via voice commands and/or text commands. Voice commands may be received by a smart speaker. Alternatively, a virtual assistant may receive commands from a user via text commands typed into a chat interface. Generally, a virtual assistant executes a simple task responsive to a request. For example, responsive to the voice command “What is the weather like today?” a virtual assistant obtains, and reads, today's weather forecast.
The virtual assistant may use a particular application or module for executing a specific task. As examples, virtual assistants invoke stand-alone applications to find directions, check the weather, and update a calendar. A virtual assistant may determine the user's intent to identify a task to execute. The virtual assistant may determine the intent using sample utterances. As an example, an application called lookupBalance is invoked based the sample utterance, “What is the balance of my checking account?”.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.